8. Extreme Rules
Card: The Miz vs. Cody Rhodes Chris Jericho vs. Fandango Dean Ambrose vs. Kofi Kingston (c) for the United States Championship Sheamus vs. Mark Henry in a Strap match Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger in an I Quit match to determine the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship The Shield (Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) vs. Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) for the WWE Tag Team Championship Randy Orton vs. The Big Show in an Extreme Rules match John Cena (c) vs. Ryback in a Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H in a Steel Cage match One of the downsides of the WWE's switch to TV-PG programming is that even an event supposedly dedicated to the 'extreme' elements of wrestling seems tame in comparison to the sort of things that were seen on Raw on a weekly basis a decade or so ago. This is obviously to protect the health of the wrestlers and is understandable, but the company should refrain from falsely marketing an event such as this one, where 'extremities' included a Tornado Tag match and a Strap match, which admittedly are two matchtypes that should feature more often on regular programming to mix things up a bit. John Cena and Ryback put on a surprisingly decent match, given that the latter, fresh from a post-Wrestlemania heel turn, was widely regarded as incapable of performing for more than a few minutes at a time. Elsewhere, the rubber match between Triple H and Brock Lesnar, taking place in a steel cage, was well-worked enough, though the latter was to made to look weak in defeat by requiring Paul Heyman's interference despite being a former UFC champion. The night will be most remembered, however, as the one where The Shield first captured gold, as Dean Ambrose beat Kofi Kingston for the United States Championship and his comrades Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns finally ended Team Hell No's long Tag Team title reign. Neither match was particularly long or enjoyable though, and the fact that three of the event's other bouts were rematches from Wrestlemania felt like lazy booking (though a promising Del Rio/Swagger/Ziggler ladder match was forcibly made into a Del Rio/Swagger rematch by a Ziggler head injury).